and every incumbent said he doesn't need to go through pop pop debates. when he related the critique reagan was voicing for months, everyone in the room freaked out. jonathan prince was a speech writer in the clinton white house. how are you? >> i'm good, toure. how are you? >> they're three traditional disadvantages every incumbent will face in the debate context. number one, standing on stage alongside the president is ennobling for the challenger. it's hard to do debate prep because of their job. number three, they lived for years in this bubble where everyone's differential and nobody is challenging them. they're like a king. they're standing in front of millions of people and someone saying you're not doing your job ri right. am i missing anything? >> the one about the bubble in particular is a serious thing. you're president of the united states almost four years. you get into discussions and debate about policy.

your staff may disagree, but there's an element of deference. you're a commander in chief. suddenly the job of the debate is to break that all down and take it apart and get them to become again someone who does it. the real trick in debates is to get under your opponent's skin. you get them to crack, that demonstrates the lack of confidence people like to see in the president. one of the ways to get under the president's skin is to treat him less than you might treat a president normally, a little less effort. the stats have to break them down and get them used to that. >> the debate game begins before the game begins, and we're in the pregame right now where everyone is lowering expectations and stay they're guy is not as good as you thought he was and the other guy is really good. explain how that's part of the whole game, and ultimately if you do better than people think you would have done, that's a victory if you don't defeat them.

>> the public opinion has kind of run away with it. most debates aren't like that. most debates rely on the media as a score keeper. this whole expectation game the campaigns go through, is designed to set expectations for the performance for each candidate so that the performance of the candidates in the actual debate is measured against it. of course, some sounds very silly. the truth is like we all learn in communications 101 school is that when you're out there putting the spin out there and all of that, to make some difference, to have some effect, it has to have some aura of credibility around it. at least the things that you're hearing from the white house, like the president has to do his job, are true. i was in debate prep with priz clinton in albuquerque in 19 the 6. prep was constantly interrupted. the world does not wait for debate appropriate. the challenger has a luxury that

the incumbent does not have in that regard. >> jonathan, 1996 you worked on the clinton's debate prep. clinton is the one incumbent, clinton clearly won that debate. the other incumbent in the modern era, 1976. we've had them every four years since. the incumbents generally lost the first debates. i'm skeptical about the idea incumbent see brings it back. i see other factors in all the races. reagan blanked he was. he was 73 years old and we might have subsequently learned what that was about, you think of clinton and george bush sr. he was a better commuter. bush 2004 against john kerry. kerry was a strong debater. i don't see incumbent see aas a factor in these. >> that's fair. there's a multitude of factors that go into success in debates. the challenger in the first debate seems to perform better.

one is the person the word has known for three and a half years as the president, and the other is a person they're geg to know. now this makes them equal. that's enormous and the psychological effect is hard to understatement. >> when i was running for congress, as the challenger it was hard to get the incumbent to debate me at all. that's the case for a lot of challenger candidates. "snl" had an amazing take on a potential trouble spot for the president in the debates. let's take a look. >> surely someone has a job that wasn't around in 2008. anyone? there he is. what do you do, sir? >> i chase raccoons out of foreclosed homes. it's great because all those homes have people in them a few years ago. >> good for you. staying outdoors. probably a lot of perks, right? >> yeah.

sometimes i eat them raccoons. >> so this question of are you better off now than you were four years ago, it's one the president surprisingly has had trouble with. if you look at the numbers, we're definitely better off, but a lot of people don't feel that way. is that one of the more vehiclesing questions for the president? how would you handle it? >> it's an interesting question, and i'd also suggest that it suggests a way to analyze ultimately who is successful in debates. i think the president has done a good job in the convention. the president's own speech to make it clear to the american people that the economic recovery is a work in progress, and that the situation in 2009 that he inherited was terrible. it's been an awful lot of work to dig us out of the hole dug. i think what people ought not to expect and what i think was mistakenly looked for in the initial reaction by media to the president's convention speech is that the answer -- the way to explain that to american people

is not lofty or sharp retort in the debate. the way to do that is to be the person the american people expect them to be which is serious, detailed, specific, sincere, ultimately trustworthy. i was struck during the convention speech where, you know, if you're looking at twitter, everybody is like this isn't lofty or exciting. it reminds me of the criticisms we received all the time when president clinton delivered state of the union addresses. they weren't necessarily lofty, but they got a lot of business done. that's what the president did in his convention speechl and i expect that's what you see from the president in debates. he'll talk past the television cameras directly to voters who want to hear how this work is progress will keep moving. >> we showed your tims for incumbent, and one was to find a way to be confident versus arrogant. i assume as an incumbent the tendency might be to look arrogant. i am the president sort of attitude. we've talked around this table before about how obama has that

tendency sometimes anyway when he's on the defensive to come off as a little kocondescending. how much of debate prep is hones in on an appropriate attitude and tone to take, and how do you fix that? >> you're exactly right. there's a fine line to walk there. those are my points. i wouldn't necessarily say exactly get out of being president. the point is to at once convey the seriousness and the clarity of purpose and the sense of command that americans expect from their president while at the same time being accessible and not arrogant and being frankly okay with being questioned, being okay with being challenged. >> do you admit to mistakes? is that a good tactic in debates? >> i think you do if they're mistakes you believe you ought to admit to. you know, it's an odd hypothetical to answer. i mean, i ran the edwards

campaign. edwards said the vote for the iraq war was a mistake. that was probably a good thing for him to do. does that mean carte blanche? no. >> of course not, no. >> jonathan, quickly your former speech writer for president clinton, how do you rate his speech at the dnc among his all-time great speeches? >> i thought it was a terrific speech. it was a fantastic speech. i think he did a great job kind of laying out there the case for the obama presidency, and it set the stage for the president's speech the next night which as i said despite the instant reviews about the lack of loft, i think if you looked at the way public opinion moved in the days after really got a lot of work done. that's what i urge all the armchair pundits to do with the debates next week. not to look at the immediate reaction and all of us "squawk"ing on tv, but to see what the voters think about what the voters and romney says. >> any great stories from '96 debate prep with clinton?

>> do i have any great stories? i think debrat prep is like vegas. what happens there stays there. sorry. >> jonathan, i have to ask you. there was a famous story. the dole people thought they had this great trick they were going to pull on you guys, that first debate in 1996 where clinton had fired the white house travel logs in 1993 and emerged this big scandal. >> i was there for that, too. >> what did the dole people try to do to you guys to throw clinton off his game? >> you're not supposed to do this on live tv, but i do not remember. >> they put the guy in the front row who had run the white house travel office at the debate because they thought clinton was going to look at him and it was going to knock him off his game and stride. of course, the reality was clinton didn't know what the guy looked like. >> you're right. one thing clinton is so good at is the audience. it doesn't matter who is out there and no matter how hostile it appears to them. whoever is out there, your job is to win them over and ask

them. that's the original arrogance thing, too. one of the rules is you have to ask for a vote. no matter how high level you are, you're the president of the united states, it doesn't matter. when it's election time you can't act like you deserve it. you have to ask. i expect we'll see the president doing that. >> john, thank you very much. you just lived through a steve kornacki moment. he remembers more about your life than you do. >> thanks for having me. mitt is behind. let the blame game again! our cyclists have their fingers ready for some finger pointing on friday, september 28th. [ male announcer ] this is anna, her long day teaching the perfect swing begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners,

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when a campaign begins to show signs of falling apart, everybody looks for somebody to blame. just today politico blamed mitt romney. steve kornacki disagrees with that conclusion. >> i know that guy. >> krystal ball blames republicans. and republicans, they blame the media. but i'm the media. i actually blame this man, john sydney mccain iii. >> he looks happy there. >> this is the message i had. he wrote about this in the daily news today. mitt is running in the wrong year against the wrong barack obama. just imagine if he had run in 2008 and won the nomination instead of john mccain. next to the junior senator from illinois, he actually would have looked very grown up, right? he had run businesses and the olympics and been a governor back when being a governor was still a big deal for running for

president. he could run on romney care instead of against it. his response to the economic meltdown, would have been i got this. i can handle it this, as opposed to mccain's which was to freak out and suspend his campaign. of course, the us versus them 99% kind of class war rhetoric of "occupy wall street" hadn't begun yet. it was still acceptable to be a rich guy and not have to wear the scarlet "a" on your chest. being an expletive we know and not adultery. it would have been the perfect time and the perfect obama for mitt romney to run against. i can't think of a worse moment for a multi-millionaire investment banker who authored a universal health care bill to run against barack obama. mitt is a great candidate. he doesn't need a makeover or new message.

he needs a time machine. >> rick santorum said the same thing. >> he's always right. >> i'm not surprised. >> i think your point is totally valid. this is not the best year for mitt romney to be running. the point is i think there are specific flaws to romney as a candidate, but there's a bigger problem here as far as the republican party is concerned in whoever their nominee was going to be this year was going to have a problem. i wrote about this at salon.com. it goes back to how the republican party reacted to and interpreted obama's rikta arvic 2008. they decided to treat him as a radical nationalist. they did that with bill clinton and barack obama. that's standard. they had to explain how a guy like that got elected. in a story they decided to tell themselves was that george w. bush had not been conservative enough. in a way he had. the prescription drug program, but their conclusion was he gave

conservatism a bad name, and because it had a bad name, it gave rise and made people susceptible to obama. >> hence the tea party. >> what they decided to go was go extremely far to the right. you had a two-front war, one against obama or one against any that strays from ideology. mitt romney can embrace the ideology that the republican party embraced post-2008, which is poisonous to an election. paul ryan budget, they're not running on the paul ryan budget. i don't know why they put him on the ticket. >> oh, my god. >> you can do what mitt romney has done. stay away from that stuff as much as you can and you can run this message of, hey, i'm the protest vehicle. if you're unhappy where the economy is, vote out obama. that's the better calculation. we're just finding out that's not enough, but the alternative is worse. >> the alternative is no real

alternative because i don't know any republican that toed the far right line in the primaries would have got through the primaries. i looked at some of the positions mitt romney was forced to take. he had to say he would vote no on a 10-1 spending deal. he talked about self-deport addition as an immigration solution. he embraced the paul ryan budget calling it marvelous and medicare vouchers and personhood which is so extreme it failed on the ballot in mississippi, arguably the most pro-life state in the country. one that hurt him in ohio is his embrace of the anti-union ohio sb 5 ballot initiative, which sealed his image early on in ohio. even his call to repeal obama care is not particularly popular. given all that range of positions that he had to take in the primary and add to that being tarred with the brush of people like todd akin, chris co-back, and rush limbaugh and darrell issa.

it's a huge problem dwroefr come. it's not easy to beat an incumbent president, and mitt romney is no ronald reagan or bill clinton. >> when you have an incumbent president with 8% unemployment, it's very difficult to win. romney has proven to be the worst candidate we've seen in perhaps 30, 40 years. i go back to steve's memory now when we get into 50, 60, 70 years. i agree with what's said including your points about mccain. if romney ran in '08 as he is now, obviously he did run in '08 and it didn't work out with him. one day we blame romney, and we've seen a lot of blame for romney throughout the campaign. one day blaming the polling and liberal media. i think that's a stretch. when do we look at the ideology and the difficult sell that is for the american people. when you have a party where the conventional wisdom is that this is a party that is here for the rich to serve the rich and the

corporations, that's a very difficult sell. i don't know that chris christie, regular guy, could sell that better. i don't know if rick santorum can sell that better than what we've seen already. >> well, obviously, there's 39, 38 days to go. where are we sf? 39. >> 30 states already votes, though. that's the other interesting thing in this. we have more than half the country is on you there casting ballots. we haven't had a debate yet. the 2013 presidential debate commission. let's schedule one before a ballot has been cast. >> that's interesting. i don't know that the candidates want to do that, right? the risk of what can happen in the debates gets very frightening for them. i don't know if they want to do it earlier. romney would like it that way. >> one thing interesting with the debates, both sides try to play down the expectations and say obama saying mitt romney is a great debater. he's amazing. >> when they come out and say mitt romney can debate, you know they are trying to do something

here. >> yeah. see, what do you think -- i'm having trouble getting a sense of what the american people's expectations for these two candidates are. i think the president is the president, so there's going to be a high level of expectation there. i also think mitt romney, though he's lost a little bit in this area, he's seen as a capable business person. so i do think he has a relatively high bar as well. >> i wonder. i don't center a good grasp on it and i'm asking the same question. he never really got to re-introduce himself. we're looking at his approval right now, and he never recovered like a usual nominee out of the primaries. what i noticed this summer and into the fall, there's a lot of coverage of romney the gaffe-prone guy. i wonder if that caricature sets in. >> the gaffes come from being out of touch and not stupid. >> right. i don't think anybody thinks that romney is dumb, but gaffe-prone. >> they don't think he's sarah

palin or george w. bush. it's not that caricature of him. it's more that he steps on himself sometimes. >> they don't think -- >> socially awkward or out of touch? >> i don't think that they think going to be impressed by him. >> the interesting thing also is when you talk to and if you read that politico piece we opened with, if you talk to handlers and his campaign staff, they're absolutely crest-fallen because they know that he's actually not in guy. he's capable and smart. >> air caecaring and compass na and spiritual. >> you wouldn't know it from the presidential race, but 2012 is a historic year for women in politics. marie claire introduces us it to the women running in heels. the class of 2012 is next. [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance?

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i'm leslie nope. i love this town and worked this whole lip life to make it great. i believe i've earned your vote. bobby newport believes he can buy it, and maybe that's because he's never earned anything his entire life. >> that hurt my feelings. that hurt my feelings. you were supposed to be this positive person. can't we talk about things we like? >> oh, it's never easy to run for office. krystal ball will tell you it's a little harder in heels. only 16% of are women putting us behind rwanda, an dora, sweden and cuba. >> those aren't real countries. >> wow. but this year there's an impressive list of ladies running a record-breaking 334 women filed to run for congress in 2012. among them a rhodes call lar in new mexico, a double amp pea war

hero in wisconsin, a former police chief in florida and a harvard professor in massachusetts. "marie claire" is spotlighting 11 women seeking office. in the guest spot today lea goldman is back. how are you, lea? >> hi. >> yesterday the king of junk science todd akin said claire mccaskill should be more ladylike. we heard elizabeth warren called slil. we've told michele bachmann told to act like a lady. these are ways of cutting down a female candidate and reminding the electorate that's a woman running. what are some of the extra challenges that women face running for office? >> here in lies the rub. we see more than ever a lot of younger women with the drive, the ambition, the passion and skills to run, but, you know, you're hard-pressed to find any talk about the real standards they're held to, which is really how they look, how they act. standards at that frankly men don't necessarily have to adhere

to. we want more candid moments in the last presidential election, hillary clinton told a reporter she felt there was a double-standard. barack obama just had to pop out of bed, jump out of shower and throw on a suit and he was ready to go. she had a lot more prep work to be done before she was camera-ready. the bottom line is women are held to a different standard, and that can be tough. >> talk about running for office, the barack obama and hillary clinton thing. barack talked about that he wears one or two suits so he doesn't think about what to wear. women can't do that. the whole message with what you choose to wear, all that soldis sending important messages, right? >> that's true. when you start to run for congress i was 27 years old, so i was reaching out to see what i could get from people that went before me in the community, et cetera. so much advice was cut your hair, how to dress, the kind of

shoes to wamplt you should take advantage of your height and wear heels. you should wear flats. you look for serious. i had one member of congress tell me, don't ever f-ing talk about your kid ever again. >> wow. >> those sorts of things are definitely real. from my campaign staffers that worked with male candidates before, they said the big difference between male and female candidates was the amount of time you talk about what outfit to wear to different events. that is still an issue. one other thing i saw in the research is women have a harder time going on the attack. i don't mean them personally, but the way that voters perceive th them, they have moring to after the opponent. it's slil and unlikeable if they go too hard against the opponents. if that's a challenge they face. i think young women and older women sometimes have different challenges. there's one woman you highlighted on the list that i

absolutely love. gabbert, amazing young woman. she ran first when she was 21 years old and succeeded and has been quite a force in hawaii. dhou she -- what's strategy did she use to be taken seriously as a beautiful young woman at a young age? >> tulsi's story is tailor-made for hollywood. this story is not to be believed. this woman, you know, she was one of the youngest -- the youngest legislator ever elected in hawaii. she's out of hawaii, a democrat. she stepped away from office at the age of 24 to serve a tour of duty in iraq. have you ever? not only does the woman, you know, have a passion for public service, she puts her money where her mouth is and serves the country overseas. is a decorated military veteran. comes back and now throwing her hat in the ring. what's most interesting about her is she was behind in the polls by 65 points. she was an unknown in hawaii running against the mayor of

honolulu. how does she turn it around? she courts older, white veterans basically. it's a really interesting game change really in the way that women are courting different kinds of voters. >> that was in the primary to come back and win the primary? >> yes. now she's expected to win smooth sailing. this is a solidly -- that was in the primary. this is a solidly democratic outpost she's running in, but really her story, her rise to fame is one you couldn't have scripted any better. this is the woman to watch. >> lea, you have another woman on your list who i know very well who is lovely. she's great running in arizona, but i want to talk about the woman running in her neighboring district in arizona who is martha mcsally. she's an impressive lady to me. she's also a veteran. she's a retired u.s. air force kor nu

colonel, the first to fly in combat. she sued the department of defense in 2001 for the military forcing her and other u.s. service women to wear the abiya in saudi arabia when she was off the base and won. really impressive woman. there are a number of veteran women on this list. >> isn't that interesting? >> they're running. is that a trend you're seeing, and do you think that the veteran aspects helps to neutralize other perceived weaknesses we were talking about that women face about not being able to be aggressive or taken seriously. >> it was one of the more interesting take-aways we got from looking at the roster of women candidates. so many were veterans. the biggest name at that comes mind is tammy duckworth. it changes the conversation in aprofound way. why? women candidates tend to be the candidates that voters, i think, expect to talk about education and jobs and health care. these are big ticket items for

women voters. now you see a crop of women candidates come forward and say, i can talk about them co-gently, but i'm hard on security issues and talk to veteran affairs. >> defense spending. >> take a state like hawaii where defense issues are huge. so it totally repositioned the platform for women candidates. it really con founds a lot of expectations that you see the statisticians rely on in how to tailor messaging for certain candidates. i think it's fascinating and one of the things they're going to write about in this campaign season for years to come. we're going to learn about this in big ways. >> one of the things that strikes me is we talked about elizabeth warren a minute ago. she's in a close race. if she wins and beats scott brown, people are talking about her as a potential presidential candidate in 2016. when you look ahead to 2016 and you think about it, there is potential here on the democratic side for hillary clinton if she

wants to run to clear the field. she will be an overwhelming favorite like we've never seen. you have a woman who is a huge favorite. if she doesn't run, we talk about elizabeth warren runs. hi kirsten hill brand, there's a lot of noise about that. amy from minnesota, word was put out at the convention too. mention her in this conversation. you had pat schroeder kind of run in 198 and elizabeth dole kind of run in 2000 and dropped out. then you had hillary in 2008, and she won states and almost won the nomination, and we're at a point looking ahead to the next presidential race. we're talking about four different women being candidates. i wonder if we enter a new era where it's standard to have multiple female candidates in the mix every time. >> a woman enters the race as the front-runner, and some people named toure think hillary

clinton will be the next president of the united states. lea goldman, thank you very much. >> thanks. come pg up, the segment steve kornacki was born to do. obscure basketball team meets high stakes politics. i can't wait. [ horse neighs ] look! she wears the scarlet markings! [ man ] out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. [ man ] it's evil! if you'd try it, you'd know.

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so it can feel like you're using nothing at all. but neosporin® eczema essentials™ is different. its multi-action formula restores visibly healthier skin in 3 days. neosporin® eczema essentials™. imagine having to compete for another country knowing sits 1940 the russians have occupied and destroyed every bit of hope. >> well, 1992 is widely remembered as the year that the american dream team first ransacked the olympics. it was jordan, pippen, larry and magic. it was the greatest team created but not the most important. that same year a freshly liberated lithuania sent their team to the olympics. it was the ultimate underdog story. even the grateful dead felt the

need to get behind it. t they faced the russians in the final game of the tournament playing for the most important bronze medal in the history of olympic basketball. joining us is director, writer and producer of the documentary "the other dream team," whose film details the history and lasting impact of that '92 team. it opens in new york and l.a. today and is expanding across the country through october. thanks for joining us. first of all, i have so the l, lithuania basketball story. i've told it before. set the stage for us here. lithuania got its independence from the soviet union a couple years earlier and the economy was kind of wrecked.

what was life like in the early '90s and why did going up against the russians matter so match? >> you have to back up to the times of iron curtain and they were sub gated by the soviet union in 1940. they spent 50 years under soviet oppression. when they got their independence in 1990 and had a short time to put this team together, it really meant everything to that country. like you said, the economy was in terrible shape. the russian mafia took over things there. there was just -- it was a terrible, tough time. at the beginning of any independen independence, things get tougher before they get easier. this was a classic case of that. these basketball teams was one of the first inspirations of the new flejingly democratic nation. >> they played the bronze medal game. in the bronze they played the russians, and they won the game. they showed up to get the

medals. you have one right now. the grateful dead colors. i want to play a clip explaining the grateful dead connection to the basketball. let's play that. >> the grateful dead were big basketball fans. >> jerry is like we're all about freedom and celebration. basically we want to help you guys. they cut us a big check and sent a box of tie-dye t-shirts with lithuania colors. that's how we entered the olympics. >> it's amazing. >> that's the story of that. what i wanted to ask is i think about the soviet union and all the years of the great rivalry with the united states. so much of the talent on the soviet basketball team came from lithuania. when you look at the population of lithuania, a very small part of the soviet union and small country. how did it become for a tiny country such a basketball mecca. >> it goes back to the 1930s when they had their independe e independence. there was a lit wanian american

called frank lube infrom los angeles that traveled to t lithuania to play basketball. then the war started, and obviously everything changed for the country. he exiled and went back to the united states. basketball had caught fire, and the soviet union tried to crush all of the culture, the language, the religion, singing, dancing, anything that was lit wanian, but they couldn't crush basketball. during the darkest times during that 50-year occupation, lit wanians looked up to the athletes. they didn't have lithuania on their chest. they looked to them for inspirgs and it was a source of pride. many sent to siberia set up basketball kouts there. it let them do something they felt was lit wanian and gave them a will to live out there.

>> this is a real deep story and meant a lot to you obviously. is it that is right you're part lit wanian or ultimate underdog story or something else in this for you? >> i remember -- >> it's his favorite thing. >> i can remember all the family holiday. my fathers and uncles played basketball in the town park. in the early '90s they wore the lithuan lithuanii lithuaniian tie-dye t-shirts. this summer i'm watching the olympics and the u.s. dream team bowl over everybody. i have the tv on a saturday morning and watching the u.s.

play l play lithuania. it's still close. i'm cheering for these guys. i love my country and the u.s., but i wanted lit juan ya to win the game. thank for joining us. go team lit juan ya. up next, it's happy hour here on "the cycle." what your favorite beer says about your politics. i'll drink to that scientific correlation. so, we all set? i've got two tickets to paradise! pack your bags, we'll leave tonight. uhh, it's next month, actually... eddie continues singing: to tickets to... paradiiiiiise! no four. remember? whoooa whooaa whooo! you know ronny, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. and how happy are they jimmy? happier than eddie money running a travel agency.

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in addition to the paper napkins, which she usually takes, we brought cloth napkins as well. we have a white house m&m's. we have a deck of marine one playing cards. some white house beer. >> that's president obama and the first lady bringing a few little treats to "the view" this week. the white house special honey ale. it sounds good. it's not just president obama. george washington also brewed his own. fdr repealed prohibition and said it was a good time for a beer. it's no wonder we see politicians throwing them back out on the campaign trail. pollsters are known to ask who

would you rather have a beer with? maybe the more important question is, what kind of beer? a national journal piece is getting a lot of buzz, no pun intended. it's called what your beer says about your politics, analyzing more than 200,000 interviews to find out which beer brands are associated with what political brands. guys, from that survey they found from their very scientific and important research i would add, top republican beers are amstel light, sam adams, coors light. top democratic bierce, heineken, corona, stella artois. >> european. >> and dos equis, busch, and fosters. >> i was thinking of miller high life when they were taking orders earlier. if they don't have, i'll go with whatever you got.

>> so coors light. that's what you go with when you take whatever you can get. >> this is the republican beer and i was trying to remember why it was. it's pete coors always did the ads. tried to parlay it into a senate seat in colorado and was defeated. >> they gave a ton of money to republican and conservative causes. >> miller high life, champagne of pierce. >> s.e., what's going on? >> i'm beerless. >> is this in honor of mitt romney? >> no. >> apropos. >> my beer of choice is babst blue ribbon which because i live in an elitist city like new york is hard to find here. so they couldn't get it for me. but i do have an amazing memory, i'm a packer fan, so going to lambeau, having a pabst blue ribbon in a can at curly's grill with a plate of cheese kurds was maybe one of the greatest days of my life. >> perhaps stereotypical of a northeastern liberal, i prefer a

nice california merlot. i'm a little classier than some other cyclists here. >> clsyer. >> i opted for the more elite beverage. >> pure class over there. >> because i'm a great patriot, sam adams which is actually a republican beer apparently. >> you're close to the aisle there. >> but i don't believe it because the true patriots here. >> also, there are three people from massachusetts here and the one who is not from massachusetts takes the sam adams. >> weird. >> i'm going blue state, california. >> about as far from massachusetts as you can get. >> but it's americana. >> i want to throw in the ring hat tip to brian, i do like dos equis or dos equis. i like the commercials, the most interesting man. >> the oldest man at the club. that's what he is. >> no. >> such a weirdo. he creeps me out. >> those ads were great at the beginning. what they started doing was they took the old chuck norris things and started applying them to

him. >> good little lines. >> yorgeoriginally it was great. >> maybe it spoke to my republican brain, i love it, dos equ equis. >> can we figure out if we can drink on the air? >> yes, wem. >> don't open that now that you have just shaken it. >> i'm opening it. >> whoo! >> cheers to the debates. >> enjoy, all. i'm left out as usual. >> the wide mouth. >> to the liberal elite. and the media. >> i'm going to finish this by -- who is doing the rant today? >> i am. >> i'm going to be -- >> we're just going to chug while toure is ranting. enough, enough. what in the world does the nfl referee strike has to do with prince's song "if i was your girlfriend"? only toure has made that particular connection.

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tv ratings are at record highs. sunday night's ratings were up 8% over a year ago, which means the free market has spoken. that was a great call because apparently people are tuning in just to see terrible calls. and that was one of the greatest worst calls in football history. right up there with brett favre pressing send. >> oh, no. >> the greatest worst call in the history of sports is behind us, and the footlocker employees have stopped officiating the games and last night for once in their entire lives, real referees got a standing ovation. the over/under on the next bad

call is two weeks and i'm taking the under but at least it will be a bad call made by a real ref and not some cassoff from the lingerie league. my friends, we just survived a nadir in sports history, a referee lockout. iverson would say we're talking about refs, not the players, not the players, but the refs. all four major sports teams have had significant labor disputes now, and now the zebras have had one, too. where have you gone joe dimaggio, indeed. that's pervasive. so often these days sports center sourds more like cnbc and the sports section reads more like a crime blotter and "sports illustrated" reads more like a chemistry class. now life's worst parts are part of the story of sports. we're drowning in money battles and drug wars. tying ser cheating, lebron's poorly handled free agent move

keeps them from being loved. the modern dimaggio figure is derek jeter. i just wish i could erase the immantle of him giving gift baskets with signed memorabilia to his booty calls. embarrassing owners to commission to petulant players to icons turned scoundrels like joe paterno and lance armstrong. but perhaps the antidote is in the poison. yes, modern sports has a way of breaking our hearts but sports was always filled with heart break. your favorite team crushes you almost every year and for a little while you're sad about it. maybe if they had a shot to win, you're despondent for a spell and then you bounce back and go into the next season with hope replenished. for a lot of men sports is a place where we get most of our emotional education. it's especially good at teaching us how to get over by heartache brought on my sports. it's like that long in prince's song "if i was your girlfriend." would you run to me if somebody hurt you even if that somebody

was me? sport hurts us and makes us whole again. the nfl will be the prozac that makes it all better. all right, martin. we toast to you, our neighbor on the air. >> thank you, toure. remember, winners never quit and quitters never win. good afternoon, it's friday, september the 28th. and mitt romney really does think he's going to win this thing. mitt and friends, do they know something we don't know? >> i'm going to win pennsylvania and i'm going to become the next president of the united states. we're going to win. there's no question in my mind. we're going to begin. if instead i know -- instead, when i become president. i'm going to become the next president. >> i believe if the election were held today, romney would win by four or five points. >> no, they don't. they're just caught up in the margin of anger. >> half the country is simply uninformed. they't